Hydrosensory Autoethnography
Sensing Belonging and Governance in Anthropogenic Waters of Limburg, Belgium
Abstract
Is it possible to bodily sense how water is governed? By framing belonging as a practice that is intimate, situated, and ethically attuned to the More-than-Human, I reflect on how institutional constraints on waters essentially reduce the possibilities for belonging to the water’s edge. This paper introduces hydrosensory autoethnography as a method for sensing such constraints from within. Through encounters with three post-extractive lakes in Limburg, Belgium, where proximity to water is controlled, heavily restricted, or even prohibited, I trace forms of intimacy that remain available in the fractures of what governance leaves open.
Submitted: March 6, 2026 | Accepted: June 1, 2026 | Published Aug. 6, 2026 | Language: en
Keywords Belonging • Sensory ethnography • Water • Water governance • Posthumanism • Hydrofeminism • More-than-Human
Copyright © 2026 Kseniia Obukhova. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.